The Glass Castle

Based on a book by Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle follows Brie Larson’s Jeannette as she attempts to put her tumultuous childhood behind her and settle down with Max Greenfield’s David – with the movie also boasting a series of flashbacks detailing Jeanette’s experiences growing up with two less-than-responsible parents (Woody Harrelson’s Rex and Naomi Watts’ Rose Mary). Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton delivers a picture that couldn’t be farther away from his subdued, engrossing breakthrough, Short Term 12, as The Glass Castle suffers from as generic and meandering an atmosphere as one could possibly envision – with the movie’s hopelessly bland feel compounded by a uniformly one-dimensional and unsympathetic roster of central characters. This is especially true of Harrelson’s Rex; despite the actor’s best efforts, Rex comes off as an almost stunningly by-the-numbers abusive father and it is, as such, impossible to ever buy him as someone that anybody, let alone a wife and children, would want to spend even a few minutes around. It’s likewise impossible to work up any interest in the character’s ongoing exploits, with, especially, a long, interminable stretch detailing his efforts at quitting drinking standing as an obvious low point in the proceedings. The seemingly endless midsection is chock-a-block with similarly misguided and hopelessly tedious interludes, and there does reach a point at which the viewer begins to feel trapped in this grimy, grungy world (ie it’s all just so unpleasant). Cretton’s efforts to elicit an emotional reaction from the viewer in The Glass Castle‘s final few minutes are nothing short of laughable, with the movie ultimately a complete and total misfire that forces one to question their admiration for Short Term 12 (ie could a filmmaker responsible for something as misbegotten as this mess really have knocked it out of the park with their last feature?)

* out of ****